Author: Amy Casey

Book Review: The Grip of It by Jac Jemc

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The Grip of ItThe Grip of It by Jac Jemc
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Jac Jemc’s The Grip of It is where Southern Gothic meets millennial anxiety, and it’s a match made in the depths of hell. Of course, that’s exactly the point of this wholly disturbing psychological thrill ride. Jemc plays so intelligently with the fear that preys on coincidence and misperception–is that stain getting larger? Does anyone else hear that faint humming sound? Was that shadow I saw for a split second actually real, or just my imagination? When we can’t trust our own judgment, our minds can start to unravel, and Jemc builds that sense of disease so slowly that the reader almost doesn’t realize it before it’s too late. One of the delicious torments of this novel is the uncertainty that permeates every moment, which Jemc balances with indelible images of haunting that will make you hug a pillow for dear life as you read. Read it as an allegory of a dishonest marriage or just a good old-fashioned haunted house story. Either way, it’s creepily, deeply enjoyable.

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Book Review: Iron Gold by Pierce Brown

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Iron Gold (Red Rising, #4)Iron Gold by Pierce Brown
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I fell back into the world of the Red Rising saga like an iron rain. As someone who is already firmly ensconced in Brown’s work, I came to this novel ready to love it, and it did not disappoint. All the trademark features of the series are here: counterplots, twists that stop in their tracks and add a backflip on for good measure, and a heaping helping each of pageantry and violence. What’s new here is the added element of over a decade of time, which allows Brown to show Darrow as a man who must now reap the consequences of the social unrest that his war has spurred. The emotional depth of the story offers new and interesting views of beloved characters–children grow up, warlords tire of war, liberated people find themselves in new types of slavery, the downtrodden grow talons, and old feuds get even older. I enjoyed the three perspective technique present in the new trilogy, which helps us consider more sides in the fractured society that Brown presents. Another amazing ride. Pierce Brown’s brain amazes me, and I’m so happy he stays just sane enough to continue to bring his world to the masses. Counting down the days until the next novel comes out! Note: I would not recommend reading this book without first reading the previous three. The family trees and various alliances are maddeningly complicated at this point, but having the previous trilogy as a primer provides an anchor.

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Book Review: Walking Your Octopus by Brian Kesinger

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Walking Your Octopus: A Guidebook to the Domesticated CephalopodWalking Your Octopus: A Guidebook to the Domesticated Cephalopod by Brian Kesinger
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This guidebook is an absolute delight for the eyes and the mind, whether you’re a Victorian about town or a cephalapod waiting for its forever home. The charms of these whimsical illustrations are unlimited, and I can’t wait to get my hands on Kesinger’s subsequent octo-oriented titles! I smiled the whole way through.

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Book Review: Kenobi by John Jackson Miller

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Kenobi (Star Wars)Kenobi by John Jackson Miller
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Kenobi is the first Star Wars installment that I’ve read since the transition to the rebooted Legends canon, and it was a natural choice because (in my opinion), Obi-Wan’s character is the single shining gem to emerge from Episodes I-III. This adventure picks up right at the end of Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, and presents Ben Kenobi’s transition to Tatooine life in the form of a space western. It’s an engaging adventure story that is absorbing and fun, but ultimately forgettable. I wish there would have been more scenes actually involving Ben, since he’s left as an enigma on the side of what is really a settler’s story. Miller doesn’t let us get close, and I think that’s on purpose. While I understand the move to keep the mystery surrounding his character sacred, I’ll simply counter with this: the book is called Kenobi. I was hoping the novel would take his point of view as its guiding force, but I guess I’ll just have to keep daydreaming about Obi-Wan’s forgotten years in my free time. That being said, enjoyable romp of a book.

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Book Review: The Secret Lives of Color by Kassia St. Clair

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The Secret Lives of ColorThe Secret Lives of Color by Kassia St. Clair
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This enchanting read is one of the most interesting informational books I’ve ever read, and it’s as much a festival for the eyes as it is for the brain. Kassia St. Clair assembles a huge collection of historical vignettes that take us through the unexpected secrets of various colors–some familiar, some quite unusual. The stories dabble in art history, fashion, biology, geology, politics, and culture, all through the lens of the colors that have influenced them since time began. What’s really wonderful is that each shade appears visually along the margins of its own story, so the reader can really soak in each shade. I loved the bite-size length of each individual color’s moment in the text, and the way St. Clair’s tone shifts in a charming way, as capricious as the colors themselves. Whether creepy, comical, pious, or posh, each color has more in its history than most of us dare to imagine. If the visual spectrum has ever interested you, you’ll want to add this title to your reading palette. (P.s. My favorite shades from the book: Baker-Miller Pink, Dragon’s Blood, Ultramarine, Absinthe, and Taupe. )

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Book Review: Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? by Frans de Waal

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Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are?Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? by Frans de Waal
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? is not just an absorbing scientific read, but also a manifesto in defense of the study of animal cognition. As one of the most prominent leaders in this field of biology, Frans de Waal gives a passionate and impenetrable body of evidence to support the concept that animals are so much more than mindless stimulus-response machines. De Waal argues that it’s high time for science to accept that human beings are in good company when it comes to thinking skills like planning ahead, creating culture, communicating, and even playing politics. With results from studies on chimpanzees, orangutans, macaques, crows, octopuses, wolves, and many more fauna, this book takes us on a tour through different types of cognition and explores the history behind what we know about animals’ amazing thinking abilities. As far as readability, the prose is a bit dry and tough to stick with for readers who don’t normally read in this genre–it is very heavy on scientific terminology, so approach it as such. One can’t help but respect de Waal’s copiously researched and referenced work in this volume: it speaks to how seriously he takes his discipline, and how seriously we should consider the minds of our crawling, flying, and swimming neighbors.

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Book Review: Artemis by Andy Weir

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ArtemisArtemis by Andy Weir
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Andy Weir’s sophomore literary appearance brings in many stylistic elements that fans will recall from The Martian: a first-person narrator with snark to spare, high stakes space peril, and lots of meticulously researched, accurate science. However, the punchy heart that made The Martian soar is just not present here. Artemis is a fun-enough adventure tale that doesn’t bring quite enough believability to its characters to be truly great. The narrator and her entourage of various frenemies drop witty lines at every turn, like they’re waiting for a laugh track. The constant witty back-and-forth, pervasive even in moments where more gravity (pun intended) really is required, makes me feel like these characters are simply a cast full of little fictional Andy Weirs. Especially in the middle of the novel where Weir is busy connecting all his plot elements, we really lose all sense of soul in exchange for the big “can you believe that?!” conundrum that pushes the ending along. The ending, by the way, is redeeming in many ways. All in all, if you want to have fun thinking about perennially sassy smugglers doing improbably complicated science heroics in a moon city, you will enjoy this. If you’re looking for Weir’s best, go re-read The Martian. There really is no comparison.

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Book Review: The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elisabeth Tova Bailey

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The Sound of a Wild Snail EatingThe Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elisabeth Tova Bailey
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Elisabeth Tova Bailey’s The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating is a quiet little masterpiece of a memoir. The book, centered around a year of the author’s life when she finds herself bedridden with a debilitating illness, takes us deep within an introspective, spiraling path that echoes the pattern of her small friend’s shell. The life of a small woodland snail unexpectedly frames and obsesses Bailey’s vision of her limited world, leading her to learn all she can about its unique life, senses, and consciousness. Peppered with quotations from 19th century naturalists, Bailey’s narrative is, like a snail, meditative, humble, lovely, and downright amazing. Beware: reading this book will almost inevitably lead to a sudden uptick in the desire to keep a snail of your own.

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Book Review: An Excess Male by Maggie Shen King

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An Excess MaleAn Excess Male by Maggie Shen King
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

An Excess Male by Maggie Shen King explores a timely, absorbing speculative premise: if the continued effects of China’s One Child Policy and preference for male children continues along its current path, what cultural reactions will occur because of the millions of “excess” unmarriageable male citizens? The writing itself is a little unwieldy and uneven. Shen simultaneously develops the rise of a governmental conspiracy on a large level alongside the more intimate drama of a family trying to make their lives work within an oppressive polygamous social structure. Ultimately, neither one reaches a fully realized state… overly easy tie-ups are definitely at play in the plot. The ideas within the novel, though, were forceful enough to give me pause, wondering how closely King’s vision will match up with the future.

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Book Review: Reservation Blues by Sherman Alexie

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Reservation BluesReservation Blues by Sherman Alexie
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

In Reservation Blues, Sherman Alexie blends blues lyrics, a Faustian deal with the devil, anachronistic historical figures, and a group of Native American musician characters with a need for life-changing music. This book is a masterful example of magical realism: the plot is at turns impossibly insane and off-puttingly real. It’s safe to say that readers who “don’t do” magical realism won’t enjoy or understand its beauty. Those who are up for the challenge will be vastly rewarded by its mysticism, straight talk, sorrow, and groove. In case you needed more proof that Sherman Alexie was born to set things on fire with his words, in case you forgot that the world is exactly as bizarre as you thought it was, in case you thought that justice could be manufactured cheaply or that real music could be born for free, please read Reservation Blues.

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